Meet Loki, our Cavoodle Puppy!

If you follow along on Facebook and Instagram, you’ll know by now just why things have been a little slow on the blog front recently.

Meet Loki, our (now) 12 week old Cavoodle puppy! Like his name suggests, he has indeed been a Dog of Mischief (because dog is god spelt backwards..). The story goes like this:

Over the last two years we have been looking at rescue dogs to join our family. Having two children, three guinea pigs and two other special needs dogs to get along with, meant we needed to find one of a certain size and temperament. Of our other two dogs, Lola who is eight, has a serious anxiety problem and epilepsy and my other thirteen year old fur baby was blind, no sense of smell and was experiencing the onset of dementia. About six weeks ago we had to make the heart breaking decision to have him put to sleep as his health rapidly declined.

With the beginning of our renovations starting, and no suitable rescue dog to be found, it seemed like getting a puppy was the last thing we should be doing. Of course you try telling that to two little girls with all the enthusiasm in the world and some great googling skills.

Having recently been researching and learning about the puppy farm or puppy mill trade in Australia, this was a”teachable moment” to help them understand that not everything is as it seems. Although those images on google looked adorable, it didn’t mean that those puppies came from the best origins. It gave me the opportunity to look into alternatives and ways of identifying good homes and origins for non rescue dogs. Starting our research with The RSPCA, we discovered that the traditional Registered Breeder system (of pure breeds), now has a partner system (The AAPDB) for registering breeders of cross breed animals. If we were to consider adopting a puppy, it was essential that it came from one such breeder.

Of course, here I am thinking, “Yep, that should hold them off for a while.” but no. With their google ninja skills I was shortly presented with the most adorable images of an apricot coloured, eight week old cavoodle, and two sets of fluttering lashes.

And so it was that we headed off on an interstate road trip to go and collect said bundle of apricot fluff.

I’ll skip ahead here and tell you that Loki was instantly one of the family. When we arrived home on the Sunday night, his tiny little body weighed no more than one of our guinea pigs, and he fitted comfortably into the palm of one hand. He jumped and played and chewed on anything that dangled from your person. He sat balled up on my lap, dreaming puppy dreams, while I typed away on these pages. No less than a week later, the following Saturday, things started to go wrong.

Little Loki stopped eating, he slept all day and wouldn’t get up to walk. By midnight that first Saturday, I lay in bed with him on my chest praying he’d make it through the night.

The next morning, I bundled his motionless rag doll body into my arms and rushed to the vet. His illness was a mystery, his tiny leg wrapped in tape as he stayed on a glucose drip in an attempt to give him some strength to fight. Each night I’d bring him home and sleep with him on the lounge room floor, feeding him by syringe every hour until we could take him back into the hospital and back on the drip.

After rounds of blood tests and X-rays, and thanks to the perseverance of the vets, the cause of his illness was discovered. A stomach bug that in a bigger dog may have past unnoticed, but in this tiny individual, had nearly taken his life over night.

With the right medication and round the clock monitoring, I’m extremely pleased to say that Loki is now back to being a bubbly bundle of puppy goodness!

He’s learning to sit, stay and already has us wrapped around his furry little toes in the studio. He is our little living teddy bear, cuddly and full of beans.

And yes, he will indeed be seen frequently on these pages, because puppies make everything better!

Specialty Vintage Stylist, Blogger, and Presenter; Candice DeVille has been writing Vintage Current since early 2008. Based in Melbourne, Australia, she's always in search of the next glamorous adventure. Bringing you vintage style, glamour and inspiration for the 21st Century.

2 COMMENTS

What a harrowing experience for such a young pup to have to endure. I’m sure that your truly caring nursing and love helped him to no end and I must say that as a passion pet lover and fellow animal mama myself, reading about what sweet little Loki has already gone through brought tears to my eyes. I’m so, so happy to hear that he’s improving and hope dearly that he’ll continue to be healthy as he grows up.